An EP with gripping folk and rock directions, Beacons marks a career relaunch for Stephen Douglas Wolfe, bringing newly remastered songs from throughout his long-running songwriting career to a wider audience. Releasing on October 13th, the EP gathers material that has remained meaningful to Wolfe and his longtime listeners, now emerging after an extended hiatus that gave the music a necessary pause before this new chapter. A tour is likely to follow next year.
Twangy guitars and acoustic strums open “We’ll Live” with melodic allure, followed by a dynamic lead presence that grows from introspective weariness to vibrant, jangly pushes to “just let it go, don’t worry about what might have been.” The track is exemplary of Wolfe’s ability to seamlessly shift between spacious folk and more anthemic emotive heights, here set within a stirring lyrical prowess capturing the heavy weight of familial and societal duty. The ensuing “O River” envelops with a finger-picked guitar beauty initially, met by glimmering twinkles and twangy adornments, before developing to a series of melodically gripping segments — from piano-touched frolicking to sturdy guitar distortion within the absorbing “o river, come drown me…” beckoning.
A more rollicking showcase arrives on the consuming “K-10,” compelling in depicting the divide between two people, pointing to vices (“I’m so drunken”) and personal tumult (“she’s so broken”) in contributing to a divide. Riveting, twangy guitar tones follow the hopeful “maybe I will be alright” line with particular enthrallment. Also compelling is EP finale “Exhale,” intertwining memorable piano and acoustics in inviting to “breathe in the air” of nature — following acknowledgments of modern strife, where oceans are filled with plastic and leaders are intent on building walls instead of bridges. Full of fantastic songwriting, Beacons is a lovely EP from Stephen Douglas Wolfe that represents a career relaunch well worth checking out.
